Mass deportation wasn’t just a rallying cry at the GOP convention. It’s a key plank of Project 2025, a radical document which fundamentally changes American government and democracy filled with conservative policy priorities for the next administration.
And it would be a disaster — not just for immigrants, but for our whole country.
Trump is talking about mass raids by the military and police across the country. Families will be torn apart, including families with citizen children. DACA recipients would be taken away from the only life they’ve ever known.
While Republicans claim mass deportations are the solution to unemployment, housing lowering prices and crime, the reality shows this is not true.
UNEMPLOYMENT
A study following the Obama-era deportations showed deportations actually increased unemployment, as companies that supply goods and services to immigrants shut down. Studies have also shown that wages do not increase for existing and new farm workers following mass deportations and that industries struggle to fill jobs left behind following mass deportations.
In addition, the sectors of construction, farming, fishing, forestry, building grounds keeping and maintenance, food transportation, material moving, retail and entertainment, and software development are sectors where Latino workers provide a significant part of the labor force. Studies show following mass deportations that prices soar in areas where migrants provided labor.
In fact, the fiscal outcome for countries is significantly poorer following mass deportations for a number of reasons, including unauthorized immigrants work in different occupations from the U.S.-born, unauthorized immigrants create demand for goods and services, and because they contribute to the long-run fiscal health of the country.
HOUSING
Mass deportations will exacerbate the housing crisis, as millions of Latino workers in that industry are deported. Lack of labor would slow down production and increase housing costs. Experts in the field say immigrants are actually the solution to the housing crisis as their labor increases the supply of available apartments and homes.
CRIME
And for all the news coverage of isolated crimes by undocumented immigrants, research has consistently shown that undocumented persons are significantly less likely to commit crimes than members of the US-born populations. Violent crime in the United States has also gone down steadily since 2020. In addition, mass deportations raise crime rates.
“When immigrants move to the United States, the economy grows,” the Immigration Research Initiative and EPI researchers found. “That doesn’t mean fewer jobs; it means more jobs: there are more consumers, more workers and more business owners. Study after study shows there is no fixed number of jobs in the economy. Immigration creates opportunities that benefit U.S.-born workers, too.”
Wisconsin Dairy Farmers have also vocally opposed Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Immigrants, who are the backbone of the Wisconsin dairy industry, are moving into leadership positions, training and supervising workers, keeping operations running smoothly, becoming trusted managers on farms that lean heavily on them to survive.
Trump’s deportation plan comes with a huge price tag and it will be a big hit to the economy.
Trump and JD Vance say they will deport between 20 – 25 million people. They estimate 1 million of these immigrants have committed a violent crime.
Deportations require making an arrest, a term of imprisonment, court proceedings and then eventually removal.
To deport that number of people, it is estimated the government would need to hire between 440,000 to 810,000 thousand new government employees and law enforcement officers
This deportation effort would require providing food and shelter during detainment at a rate 10x’s higher than the entire current U.S. prison population.
Detentions of 1 million people per year will cost an estimated $88 billion per year, with most of that going toward building/maintaining detention camps.
Experts warn Trump’s plan would cut the GDP by 6.8% which is roughly twice the amount the GDP went down during the financial crisis. They predict it would lead to either a recession in the best case scenario or a depression.
Sources:
Do mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens?
Will Deporting Immigrants Make Homes Affordable? Trump Thinks So, Homebuilders Disagree
Report shows Trump’s mass deportation of immigrants increased crime rates
Trump says vow to deport millions of undocumented people has ‘no price tag’
Mass Deportation Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy
Mass deportation would come with hefty bill, require more manpower, immigration experts say
Forget the lies and slander. Wisconsin dairy farmers know they need immigrant workers
Kenosha County Democrats 
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